Monday, December 12, 2016

Coast to Coast in a Day.


Back in 2012 Tom did his first Coast to Coast ride aged 7. Over 4 days we rode to Tynemouth from Bowness on Solway, and then back again via Hadrian's Cycleway.

This is us when we set off back in 2012.


We'd had a plan for awhile to repeat this trip, though this time in 2 days.


We arrived at Bowness on Solway a bit later than was ideal in spite of getting up at 5am.

No messing about we were soon heading East. At Carlisle we stopped for a quick bite to eat.



This finger post is as far as we managed last year before ice and snow forced us to turn back.


This time though the weather was being kind.

We stopped for lunch at a rather nice cafe. Tom does like a good hot chocolate sometimes instead of his usual Coca Cola.



Though the route follows the line of Hadrian's wall, there are only a few sections where the wall is obvious. Some more archeology below, a Lime Kiln.


There was next to no traffic on this section.



Below is Tom at the high point on the route. From here, it is mostly downhill to the sea.


Not long after this was taken light was fading, and we were grateful that we'd bought our Exposure lights.

We arrived at Tynemouth at 9pm.


Some chips to celebrate.



All we had to do then, was get to our hotel in Sunderland which should have been around 8 miles away.

I say should have been, as the tunnel under the Tyne that we'd planned on using was closed.

This meant, that to cross the river we rode back to the Millenium bridge.


The theoretical 8 miles by 11pm had turned into 24. A total of 124 miles for the day.

It took minutes to get to sleep.

Next morning we were up at 6am.


We were on the road by 7, and after a few miles, we stopped for some warm food.


Once over the river, two things became clear. One that we were going to be riding into a stiff headwind for the day, and secondly one of my knees was becoming very painful. My knee pain was such that we riding a bit slower than we should be, and we hadn't even got to the hilly bits yet.


Whilst I knew that we would eventually get back to the car, the prospect of another long day was not appealing.

At Corbridge, we elected to get the train back to Carlisle which would cut out 50 miles, and leave just 15 more to do.


My knee was grateful of our decision. My "new" bike set up obviously needs looking at.

We were back at the car just after 2pm, and home in time for supper with the girls.

Another great weekend riding bikes.



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